If James Bond logs on to a computer, he doesn't want to leave a bunch of files, cookies, or his IP address out there for someone to find. It might seem extreme, but sometimes it's a good idea to take the same precautions yourself.

In this post, we'll walk through how to use a USB stick or DVD to anonymize, encrypt, and hide everything you do on a computer no matter where you are. When we say "browse without leaving a trace", we truly mean it. Using the Linux-based, live-boot operating system Tails (The Amnesiac Incognito Live System), you can use any computer anywhere without anyone knowing you were ever on it. Tails is a portable operating system with all the security bells and whistles you'll ever need already installed on it. You can install Tails on one of your many dust-gathering USB drives or a DVD. We'll show you how to set up your own portable boot disc in the second section, but let's start by taking a look at what you get with Tails.

What Tails Is and What's Packed Into It

The magic of Tails is that you don't have to do a lick of work: once you create your boot disc you'll have a completely anonymous, totally private operating system preloaded with all the software you (or James Bond) would need. What's packed into it? Let's take a look.

The Software Packed Directly into Tails

Once you create your Tails boot disc, you'll be ready to reboot your computer into an encrypted and private operating system preloaded with all the software you'll need to browse the web, email, IM, and edit documents. Regardless of whether you choose a DVD or USB nothing you do is left on the computer you booted from.

Built-in online anonymity: The key feature that's going to appeal to most people is Tails' built-in online anonymity. This comes in the form of the customized web browser Iceweasel built using the anonymous web browsing technology from Tor. The browser also includes popular security extensions like HTTPS Everywhere for secure browsing, Adblock Plus to block ads, and NoScript to block Java and Flash. Other than those features, the web browser works exactly like you'd expect a web browser to work.

Built-in file encryption: When boot Tails from a USB drive instead of a DVD, you can save documents to the thumb drive and they're automatically encrypted using an encryption specification called LUKS. (Since the DVD is read-only, you can't save any files—which is its own form of security.)

A full suite of editing software: On top your web access being private you also get a full suite of work and creative software. Tails comes preloaded with Openoffice for editing documents, Gimp for editing photos, Audacity for editing sound, and plenty more additional software.

The developers behind Tails recommend you verify your Tails ISO to make sure it's an officially released version that hasn't been tampered with. We won't walk through that process here, but they have instructions on their web site for Windows and Mac or Linux.

Step 4: Boot into Tails

Stick your Tails DVD, CD, or thumb drive into your computer and reboot. The process for booting into a disc or external drive depends on your system, so lets look at how to do it on Windows and Mac.

On a Windows System: Different Windows computers have different default settings for booting from an external drive. If yours doesn't already check for a boot DVD first you can always edit the BIOS boot order (often the DEL key at startup) to make sure your computer looks for a CD or USB before it starts. Alternately, you can closely watch the BIOS screen at the beginning of your computers startup for the Boot options shortcut (usually one of the function keys). When you get to the boot option menu, select your DVD drive and you'll boot into Tails.

Now that you've put everything together, you're past all the difficult stages—the rest is …
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On a Mac System: When you turn on your Mac immediately press and hold down the Option key to access the Startup Manager. Select the Tails DVD (the description will actually say "Windows") and you'll boot into Tails.

Step 5 (Optional): Clone the DVD onto a USB Drive

Now that you're booted into Tails it's easy to clone your boot DVD onto a USB drive directly from the Tails operating system. Here's what you need to do:

When the installation is complete you'll have a bootable USB drive. The benefit of the USB drive is that any files you create in Tails are saved and encrypted directly on your device. However, a USB drive could theoretically be hacked into if you leave it around which is why the ultra-paranoid might prefer a read-only DVD for Tails.

Also, Macs don't support USB booting without downloading and installing additional software called rEFit. This means you have to download and install rEFit on every Mac you want to boot into Tails from a USB drive.

Creating a bootable Tails disc is a simple process and a great use for one of those USB drives you have laying around doing nothing. Since you can use Tails on about any public computer you run into it's a great way to keep your browsing and usage hidden from the world. It's even beneficial on your home computer since you don't have to alter your system in any way.

This post is part of Spy Week, a series at Lifehacker where we look at ways to improvise solutions to every day problems Bond-style. Want more? Check out our spy week tag page.